Craft beer takes center stage

National Craft Beer Week kicks off today through next Monday, May 21. If you’re like me, you need someone to tell you it’s National Craft Beer Week.
After all, who keeps track of such things? In my mind, every week is craft beer week.
But the Colorado-based Brewers Association, headquartered in Boulder and host for the annual Great American Beer Festival in nearby Denver, deftly markets this week – just as it does craft beer in general. While sales of Big Beer were flat at best during the past decade, craft beer sales maintained a steady 8 percent annual growth.
Recession, what recession? At least not for this artisanal product.
Just because I’m a little flip about the subject doesn’t mean local business owners aren’t going out of their way to recognize National Craft Beer Week.
Proof!, the Tennessee Street watering hole that’s in the process of becoming a brewpub, is ramping up later this week with three consecutive glass-giveaway nights, starting Wednesday with a Sierra Nevada tribute. The highlight, I believe, comes Friday when Proof! features an amazing collaboration between Dogfish Head, Stone and Victory breweries called Saison du Buff. It sounds like a must-have pour.
No one in Tallahassee, I dare say, is celebrating National Craft Beer Week on a scale that compares to what Donny Dye is doing at Momo’s Pizza and Brewpub at Market Square. Dye tells me he is having a tap takeover with exclusively Florida-brewed craft beers.
He will have 18 beers from Cigar City, Swamphead, Cocoa Beach Brewing, St Somewhere, Native Brewing, Pensacola Bay, Orange Blossom Brewing, Orlando Brewing, and of course, Momo’s. Now that’s going the extra mile to showcase the growing number of craft breweries in the Sunshine State.
Most craft beers have never been pasteurized, unlike the Big Beer offerings that dominate most grocery and convenience store shelves. That means that, in most cases, craft beer is meant to be enjoyed sooner rather than later.
Craft beers, with some exceptions, rarely get better with age. They are meant to be savored while they are still fresh, and it only makes sense that geographical proximity can insure that you are trying the freshest beers possible.
Which is one more reason to head to Momo’s – this week in particular. Sample the different breweries in Florida and find out which ones you like the most. See if you agree with me that Cigar City in Tampa is ahead of the pack.

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About The Author

I'm a senior writer at the Tallahassee Democrat. I primarily write about higher education, but this blog usually focuses on beer or wine or the occasional spirit. I'm a former home brewer, and I have been a judge at state and local beer competitions.